Retrieval Saga: Galvanized Wills
by Cydra
Summary: The North Star has been forced to land on Galva Prime because of malfunctions. However, the malfunctions were no coincidence. Can Draco, Chip, and Contrinus survive the plot of a dreaded enemy of theirs?
1. Planet of the Frogs

**Retrieval Saga**

**Galvanized Wills**

**Chapter 1: Planet of the Frogs**

It's been several days since the crew of the North Star had bailed Matt out of jail. Not much had happened since then, but the crew had noticed that several of the appliances and devices were malfunctioning in cases from minimal to quite noticeable. Here's an example of one such incident:

Matt was thirsty so he went to the kitchen to get something to drink. He filled a glass with some lemonade and then activated the ice crusher for some ice. Instead, several ice cubes shot out like a machine gun. Matt dodged to avoid becoming a frozen martini. Once the barrage stopped, Matt muttered, "What's wrong with the freezer?" He opened the freezer door and got a full blast of icy mist that covered in a layer of frost. "I'm f-f-fine," he chattered, "I'll just t-t-turn on the st-st-stove for a m-m-minute." He shuffled over and turned on the stove. Quite predictably, the stove barbequed hi with a flamethrower-like blast. Matt screamed and ran into the hallway, where the fire extinguishers pelted him with high-pressure water spouts. In the end, Matt was left a pathetic-looking wet mess on the floor until Chupy the chupacabra found him and latched onto his butt with his mouth, which made Matt do an interesting dance until he slipped on a puddle and landed on top of Chupy.

That particular incident was the last straw for Matt. So when he was able to reclaim enough of his injured dignity, he ordered Techo to find a place to take care of all the glitches on the ship. Fortunately, there was one ideal place for that: Galva Prime, home world of the Galvans. The crew immediately set sail for it as they've also had enough of the faulty tech. Galva Prime was a relatively tiny world compared to most planets, about the size of Mercury or Pluto. It had three moons orbiting it: Galvan A, B, and C. The Galvans were equally tiny to match their home world, but they had provided on area of the largely industrialized planet for off-world visitors larger than themselves. So it was here that the North Star landed.

As soon as the spaceship landed, Matt opened the hatch door and stepped outside. "Watch where you're stomping!" cried a tiny voice. Matt looked down and saw a couple of frog-like aliens that looked a lot like Grays. "Sorry, didn't see you there," said Matt. "That's what they all say," said one of the Galvans.

"State your business here," said a more official-looking Galvan. "We're here to buy some upgrades for our ship," said Matt, "it's been acting screwy recently." "There's a mechanic's shop over there," said the Galvan, pointing in a particular direction, "it's not far for someone your size and it has a rocket sign on it. You can't miss it. Just try not to step on anyone on your way there."

The landing strip wasn't the only thing built for larger-scaled beings. There was a small community center for interplanetary travelers. It was more like a pit stop than a motel, so not too many people stay long here. Matt walked on toward where the Galvan pointed. Draco, Chip, and Contrinus followed after him. Draco and Contrinus wanted to see if there was anywhere to fly while they were here. Chip wanted to see more of the Galvan homeworld, being part Galvan.

Matt soon found the shop. It appeared empty except for some machine parts hanging on the walls or stacked on the shelves. There was also a counter with what looked like a high-tech cash register with a black and green casing and a bell on it. Matt walked over and rang the bell. When no one came, he rang a couple more times. Suddenly the cash register snapped, "Will you cut that out already? I was trying to take a nap." Matt yelped and jumped away from the talking cash register. "Relax," said Chip, "it's just a Galvanic Mechamorph."

The 'casing' of the cash register jumped off, revealing a rather normal-looking cash register underneath. The 'casing' morphed into a humanoid creature that had a green front side, a black backside, perfectly symmetrical circuit lines on its body, and a glowing green eye for an eye. "Welcome to Pivot's Spaceship Repairs," said the Mechomorph, "how can I help you?" "Well, my ship has been acting crazy lately and nobody can figure out what's the matter with it." "Hmm," said Pivot, "can you be more specific?" "Pretty much every time you turn something on in that thing, it backfires somehow," said Draco.

Pivot rubbed what could be assumed to be his chin and said, "I see, I'll have a look at it and see what I can do. It's on the landing strip, right?" The group nodded and Pivot flipped on a sign that said 'Away' on a window of the shop and then walked out the door.

Matt turned to the others and said, "I didn't know there were Galvanic Mechamorphs here on Galvan Prime." "Where do you think they come from?" said Chip. "I heard something about them being from a moon." "That's right," said Chip and pointed out the window and towards the sky, "they're from Galvan B, the second moon orbiting Galva Prime. Apparently it was rich in minerals so the Galvans mined there often. But then they tried using this self-replicating nanotechnology to help with mining. It backfired rather badly. The nanotech bonded with the moon's minerals and brought the entire moon to life. Unfortunately, the moon isn't that sentient and will devour anything that lands on it, making it essentially 'carnivorous land'. The Galvans used the material from Galvan B's surface to build the Mechomorphs." Matt glanced upwards towards the sky. Since it was nighttime, he could clearly see Galvan B up in the sky. It looked like a regular moon to him, but he thought he could make out a metallic glint on the surface. He turned his attention back to the others and said, "Let's head back to the North Star. I want to make sure this 'Pivot' guy knows what he's doing."

It didn't take long for them to get back. By then, Pivot was looking over the North Star with the landing strip's analyzing computer. "You think you can fix it?" asked Matt. Pivot made eye contact with Matt and said, "I have good news, bad news, and troubling news." "Let's have the good news first." "Okay, the good news is that I can fix this thing, but the bad news is that it might take a while. "Then what's the troubling news?" asked Draco. "According to the scanners, it appears the main reason your ship's been acting weird is because there were several computer viruses in the system."

The others gave Chip suspicious looks to which he responded, "Don't look at me, I had nothing to do with it." "And here's the odd thing," said Pivot, "apparently, the viruses had been affecting the ship's engines, so it has been subtly forced to come near this planet." "Why would it do that?" asked Matt. "Not sure, but it sounds to me that someone wanted you to come here for whatever reason."

As the five of them talked, none of them noticed one of the security cameras acting funny. It gave crackles of electricity and shifted to point its lense at them. The camera studied the group, particularly the crewmembers from the North Star. "I've got you now," muttered a voice and then the camera went blank.

* * *

Here's the first chapter of the new story up at last. It wasn't a matter of writer's block, it's just that my primary work computer is unable to connect to the Internet at the moment. Anyways, this chapter's only the tip of the iceberg of what's about to happen. Check for the next update to find out exactly what. Please review.


	2. Aggravated Assassin

**Retrieval Saga**

**Galvanized Wills**

**Chapter 2: Aggravated Assassin**

The gang decided they might as well see what there was to be seen while they waited for their ship to be repaired. They figured out that since they had some pocket money, they should do a little window-shopping. The Galvans were among the most technologically advanced race in the galaxy so it was always interesting to look at the tech they sold. There just happened to be a place to do that, a building that somewhat resembled a cross between a shopping mall and a science expo that is called by most the Tech Mark.

As the gang entered, they noticed that not only were there Galvan tech on sale, but other species were marketing their wares. The girls were fascinated with some gemstones from the Petrosapian colonies, which sparkled in all the colors of the rainbow.

Then they noticed a quaint little store that sold plants from worlds like Leppidopterra and Flors Verdance. Morph waddled over to one flower-like plant and said, "Hello Mr. Flower, do you mind if I sniff you?" He put his nose up to the petals and took a big sniff. Suddenly the petals closed down on his nose and the plant started shaking Morph around. Eventually, it shook Morph's nose off and tossed him away. Morph re-grew his nose and said, "I wonder if they have any hypo-allergenic versions of that plant?" "You don't want to see those, kid," said the merchant in charge of the store, "Trust me."

Then they noticed an odd curio shop that had merchandise that had many swirling color. Matt approached the Galvan in charge and asked, "What is all this?" "This is Les'de's Shack of Stupefication," said the Galvan, "I sell all kinds of things that can send your friends and foes into a stupor. "Even more than a real-estate pitch?" asked Matt.

"Deeper than that," said Les'de indicating a ray gun on the counter, "for example, that machine can disrupt the brainwaves of most sentient beings, making them act in all kinds of wacky ways." "Sounds like a concentrated version of a television." "You don't know how many times I've heard that joke.

Neither of them noticed the machine in question had just given off a few crackles of electricity and was now moving its blaster over the shop. It stopped on Chip's head and locked onto its target. The machine shot out a beam of stupefying energy straight at Chip. But Chip moved away at the last second and it zapped Morph in the back of his head while he was mesmerized by a hypno-screen. When the beam hit him, Morph's face went even blanker and he apparently lost all his motor skills. Chip didn't notice anything unusual and though Morph had simply stared at the hypno-screen for too long. He gave him a small zap to bring him about. "C'mon Morph, let's go," he said as the group walked out of the shop. "Yako," said Morph in a garbled voice and started walking backwards after them.

At this point, they were getting hungry so they looked for someplace to eat. Quite to their luck, there was a cuisine stand that was being run by a Gourmand. Gourmands had the best sense of taste in the galaxy, so they made excellent chefs. Matt looked at the broad range of items on the menu and said, "Er, do you know how to prepare anything from Earth?" The Gourmand nodded and said, "I know how to prepare anything, from that planet, from apples to zucchinis. Had anything in mind?"

"How about good old pizza?" asked Lilo. The sentiment carried around so the Gourmand said, "Okay then, old-fashioned Earth pizza coming up." As he went into his kitchen to prepare his ingredients, the sauce-dispenser suddenly let out some crackles of electricity and switched the selection to Pyronite-style hot sauce. It then launched some in the direction of Draco. However, it missed and landed on Morph's head. Morph didn't have much time to scream as the hot sauce quickly ate through his head and dissolved a large portion of his upper body. Draco looked at Morph and said to Contrinus, "I might have what's on him on my piece of pizza. I like hot sauce."

This was hardly the oddest thing that happened that day. The gang kept visiting various places and at each place, some machine gave off electrical sparks and tried to attack Draco or Chip and some bit of luck made the attack miss and hit someone else, usually Morph. In this manner, most of the gang was sent back to the North Star. Morph eventually got fed up with continuously being assaulted and went back to the North Star, leaving Matt, Draco, Chip, and Contrinus to look about Galva Prime. But the intelligence responsible for these attacks was even more frustrated. Its patience was wearing rapidly thin, but it did notice that its targets now had less people around them, making them a lot easier to attack now. But knowing that using nearby machines would probably not work, it decided to take care of them itself.

Matt, Draco, Chip, and Contrinus were now in a quieter, less-used part of the visitors' community. "Have you noticed anything odd?" asked Matt. "You mean how our comrades have been picked off one by one by malfunctioning machinery?" asked Chip. "That and this hat I'm wearing, I think it's too tight for my head."

Draco looked closely and asked, "Could that be why your hair's turning green?" Matt quickly snatched off the hat and chucked it into the shopping bag. "Lousy quality headwear," muttered Matt, "we're going to ask that Petrosapian for our money back."

Suddenly they heard a loud explosion from somewhere and they looked around in confusion. "What was that?" asked Contrinus. Then suddenly, a large section of wall from a building near them was blasted to pieces. They quickly ducked to avoid the flying pieces of debris. They looked at the hole where the explosion came from, which was billowing out smoke. Then a rather odd-looking robot emerged from the smoke. It had a circular body that was flat on the top and bottom. Attached to the sides of it were six jointed limbs that each ended in a canister shape with four claws on it. It also had a tail that ended with a sting shaped slightly like a horseshoe. It had a long neck that ended with a snake-like head with red eyes and had six snake-shaped crests surrounding it. It was about the height of an adult human, but it was hard to tell as it hovered off the ground with a levitation disc on its belly that had a marigold symbol on it shaped somewhat like an eye. The robot grinned nastily and said, "Dear me, am I causing a ruckus?"

"Mantichrome!" cried the experiments. Matt looked at them and asked, "You know him?" "Well, it's a bit of a complicated story," said Draco, "we can explain later as soon as we get rid of this creep." Mantichrome frowned and said, "Oh, I'm not planning on being 'get rid of' so easily. I was sent to exact vengeance on you as a programming, but now it's personal."

Matt extended his ion staff and said, "I haven't met a bot whose butt I couldn't kick." Mantichrome looked at Matt and said, "Now I recognize you. Matthew Lynch. My grandfather told me much about you, particularly about your loud mouth." Matt paused in confusion, "Your grandfather? Who's your grandfather?" Mantichrome simply shouted "Iron Gorgon!" and sent a hexagon-shaped beam at them. They barely dodged it and watched as it turned a fire hydrant to solid adamantium. "Never mind, I think I can guess now."

Mantichrome then started firing marigold blasts of viral energy at the four of them. They ducked behind a building and out of Mantichrome's sight. "Where did you meet this guy?" asked Matt. "Well, there are some parts that have to remain secret," said Chip, "but basically, this guy's a revenge droid from the future who came back through time to complete his programming; which is destroying me and Draco and taking over Earth, not exactly in that order. He managed to do the last part by digitizing the globe, but we stopped him and now he's apparently focusing on the other part of his programming."

"Wait a minute," said Matt, "if that thing digitalized the planet, I think I would have remembered that. All I'm getting is this weird déjà vu feeling." "Yeah, that's normal," said Draco. "What?" "Nothing."

Then Mantichrome blasted through the wall and said, "You're not escaping that easily, trogs!" "I didn't think we would," said Draco, "I just want to escape." He breathed ice at Mantichrome, which frosted over his eyes and temporarily blinded him. When he cleared his eyes, he noticed the group was gone. Mantichrome roared with impatient fury and yelled, "This is not over! I will make sure you will never leave this planet alive!"

* * *

Now the gang's really in hot water. For those of you who haven't looked at my deviantART account, Mantichrome's from a story found on it. There's also his picture and another story he appears in. I apolgize about the tardiness of this update. My main computer still can't connect and I'm forced to retype my chapters on the other computer. I'm planning on getting a memory stick to cut out the middle man soon. The next update will be soon and very suspenseful, so you will not want to miss it. Please review.


	3. Funeral on the Moon

**Retrieval Saga**

**Galvanized Wills**

**Chapter 3: Funeral on the Moon**

Matt, Draco, Chip, and Contrinus quickly hurried back to the landing strip. They had just managed to escape Mantichrome and his last threat was still ringing in their ears. Matt ran over to the North Star and saw Pivot working on the engines. He hurriedly tapped him on the shoulder, which was an odd feeling, like tapping metallic putty. Pivot turned around asked, "What? What do you want?" "Is the ship ready?" asked Matt. "Not for a couple more hours," said Pivot, "I told you it would take a while."

"We don't have a couple of hours!" snapped Draco, "there's an evil cybernetic basilisk trying to kill us!" Pivot didn't seem impressed, "It's taking a while to clear out all the bugs, even for me. If someone's really trying to kill you, I'd try to hide." "Where can we hide?" asked Chip, "We'll tower over practically everything else on this planet outside this pit stop and that revenge droid probably knows the entire layout of it."

"Oh, so it's a revenge droid that's after you, eh?" said Pivot as merged his fingers with some more wires, "Nasty machines, those. It'll be hard work to ditch something like that if it's on your tails." "You mean they make those things in this time?" asked Contrinus in disbelief. "It's true," said Matt, "but revenge droids are usually used by mobs or illegal traders to get back at someone who double-crossed them. They're a bit better than biological assassins because they don't ask for money, but they tend to stick single-mindedly to their targets. Mantichrome's a bit different in that he has self-awareness and a personality, but neither are any bit saintly from the way he acted."

Pivot nodded and said, "He's right, that revenge droid is probably nastier than most others from your description. It's probably got you cornered in a couple of ways since your ship is down and there isn't anywhere to hide on Galva Prime." "Then we're sunk," said Draco. Pivot didn't have much of a face beside his eye, but he did have an air of smugness around him, "I said you didn't have any where on Galva Prime to hide. But you can probably take a cruiser shuttle and hide in the satellite belt. But I wouldn't recommend landing on any of the moons, especially Galvan B. They don't have any atmosphere, but Galvan B will swallow you whole if you land on it, even if it's technically my home world."

"That sounds like a good idea," said Chip. "Problem is that the cruiser shuttles are built to hold like only two human-sized beings. I don't think all four of you will fit on." "You guys go," said Matt, "Mantichrome won't go after me, he's only interested in you two." "I'm going too," said Contrinus, "I'm not going to leave Draco when he might need me." There wasn't much time to argue so the three experiments got on board a cruiser shuttle and quickly headed upwards to orbit.

The cruiser shuttles were built and designed so that larger species could have a tour of Galva Prime without inadvertently stepping on something. But Chip hijacked the autopilot so that they had control of where the shuttle left. The design of the ship meant that it won't have enough resources to go into deep space, but it should buy the three of them enough time until the North Star is fixed and they can leave.

"I must admit, I'm a bit worried about Mantichrome," said Contrinus, "there's no telling what he would do to the others when he gets to the landing strip." "He probably won't do anything serious to them," said Draco, "Remember, he's programmed to go after Chip and me, not the others." "But let's not also forget that he's as clever as his forefathers," said Chip, "so it won't take him long to realize what we did and where we are, so we'll have to be alert for anything."

The orbit around Galva Prime wasn't as cluttered as that around Earth. This was mostly because the Galvans' satellites were a lot smaller and, because of their advance technology, there didn't need to be too many. The satellite belt was halfway between Galva Prime and its closest moon, Galvan A. The cruiser shuttle orbited the planet a few times, looking for signs that Mantichrome had followed them. After the first dozen orbits, they began to relax. Perhaps Mantichrome's levitation disc was incapable of exiting Galva Prime's atmosphere. Chip checked the oxygen supply and said, "Well, we need to pull in for a little bit to restock on air to breathe. After that, we just wait a few more hours and the North Star should be fixed by then."

Suddenly, one of the satellites they were approaching started giving off marigold sparks of electricity. Then one of its transmitter dishes pointed towards the cruiser shuttle and shot a beam of marigold electricity at it. The beam hit the shuttle, which crackled with the same colored electricity. Then Mantichrome's sneering face appeared on the screen that normally provided fun facts about Galva Prime. "Thought you were clever, didn't you?" said Mantichrome's voice, "Thought that I wouldn't be able to follow you up here, huh? Well that might have stymied me for a while, but that didn't stop me. In fact, you just provided with an excellent way to get rid of you all."

Then the controls were seized from Chip and the shuttle started going further out into orbit. It passed Glavan A and then headed towards Galvan B. The experiments felt their blood chill when they saw the slightly metallic-looking moon looming up ahead. But Chip's blood was made of electricity and then didn't chill as bad as the others'. "I think I can gain control," said Chip, "but it's going to be risky." He dove into the screen Mantichrome's face was leering out of and entered the shuttle's system. The shuttle tossed and tumbled as the two viral entities inside battled for control. Then it stopped not far from Galvan B. Draco and Contrinus waited apprehensively for Chip to emerge victorious.

But then another computer screen came to life, this time it was the one positioned outside where it normally greeted tourists. Out of that screen emerged Mantichrome, holding Chip by his neck and with a grin that made it look like his head was hinged. "That was an impressive struggle you made," gloated the revenge droid, "but unfortunately, you weren't the victor." "That's what you think," said Chip through his electronic speakers, his normal mouth was closed to hold his breath in the vacuum, "I put up a firewall in the shuttle's system so you can't get back in there." Mantichrome chuckled darkly and said, "Clever, but not clever enough. You may have saved your fellow trogs, but you won't escape so luckily."

Then Mantichrome started flying towards Galvan B. Chip struggled to get free, but Mantichrome had a firm grip and was canceling out all his viral powers. Draco and Contrinus could only watch from a distance as Mantichrome stopped to hover a hundred yards off the surface of Galvan B. "Au revoir, 6-2-9," said Mantichrome and threw Chip downwards. Chip had no ability to fly or hover so there was nothing he can do to stop his fall. He hit the surface with a splash, the liquid metallic surface rippling all around him. He waved his arms and called for help, but the moon's surface latched onto him with appendages covered with circuit lines. In desperation, Chip fired off indigo blasts of viral energy, but it apparently had no affect. The appendages pulled Chip in deeper until he was under the surface. The surface rippled and returned back to the way it was; seemingly natural and devoid of life.

* * *

Oh my, this is definitely not good. Could Mantichrome have really finished off Chip? Will Draco and Contrinus escape the revenge droid's malice? Do these questions sound a bit cliche?

I know I shouldn't dangle you like this, but I really want to hear what you feel about this. I am going to update as soon as possible, but I want to an appropriate amount of responses first. Let's say, five, maybe four? As soon as I've gotten enough, I'll update.


	4. Brother's Eulogy

**Retrieval Saga**

**Galvanized Wills**

**Chapter 4: Brother's Eulogy**

For the first few seconds, all Draco and Contrinus could do was gape in shock. They could hardly believe what they saw. Mantichrome has just killed Chip. He fed him to a carnivorous moon and now he was laughing about it. Laughing fit to burst.

Draco suddenly growled deeply and started to extend his alien appendages. "Don't," said Contrinus, "You can't fight him here. We can't survive outside this ship and we're running out of air. We need to head back to the North Star." Draco sighed and took control of the ship and pointed it back towards the planet. "I'll never forgive him for this," said Draco, "Not in a thousand years."

After a while, Mantichrome left off his bout of triumphant laughter. He glanced back to see the cruiser now entering Galva Prime's atmosphere. This inconvenience only put a minute damper on his mood. He finally gotten rid of one of the beings he was programmed to eliminate. He felt rather elated, but he didn't let his giddiness get to his head. "Draco's going to be tougher," said Mantichrome, "He's much more skilled in combat than Chip was. And he'll be driven to avenge his fallen comrade." He thought for a while and then said, "I think it's time I got myself an upgrade."

Draco and Contrinus eventually landed on the landing strip. The North Star was still docked there and apparently Pivot hadn't finished with repairs yet. Matt, Lilo, and Stitch were waiting for them when they landed. "There you guys are," said Matt, "I was getting worried." "Hey, where's Chip?" asked Lilo.

Draco and Contrinus exchanged looks and Draco said, "He's dead." This stunned the others and they kept quiet while Draco and Contrinus told them what happened. "Mantichrome won't gloat for long," said Contrinus, "Eventually, he'll get around to taking care of us. We have to do something." Draco put a hand on her shoulder and said, "We will, but I think a wake's called for first."

Some time later, the crew was gathered at the bridge. Chip's framed picture was standing on the dashboard, with several candles lit about it. Everyone looked solemn, even Techo, who didn't always got along with Chip. However, Morph was taking a nap from being blasted so many times and wasn't there.

Matt cleared his throat and said, "Today, we honor the passing of our good comrade, Chip. He was taken before his time by the villainous droid, Mantichrome. He was a very important part of this crew and was special to us all. I think Draco would like something to say now."

Draco straightened up and said, "I've known Chip longer than anyone else here. We've always been together, even in the toughest of dangers. We never gave up on each other, even when he had our minor differences, even when our opinions didn't point in the right direction, even when one of us had been brainwashed and was trying to kill the other. His departure has left a gap in our lives, a gap that will be extremely difficult to fill in. I hope that he is in a better place now." There were a few tears from the female members of the crew, but they tried to control themselves. Draco in particular was having trouble with keeping only a few tears from getting out.

Then attention shifted to the next important issue: Mantichrome. Doubtlessly, he'll be at the landing strip for Draco, and possibly Contrinus. The two of them needed a place to hide. However, Techo had the perfect solution: hiding in plain sight.

Draco looked at the small cube dubiously. "I don't think we can hide in this thing," said Draco. "It's not for hiding," said Techo, "It's a holographic projector. You know like the one Chip… Anyways, you guys just stay close together and it should shroud you both." Draco pressed the button on the side and both he and Contrinus were surrounding by colorful light that faded to reveal a quite unexpected image. "Why do we look like NegaMorph?" inquired Contrinus.

Techo shrugged and said, "Mantichrome would never suspect it. I doubt anyone would think that someone would try to dress up as NegaMorph. Except for with that one girl you mentioned. What happened there?" "If you tell him, I'll tie your four tongues together," called Matt's voice from the other side of the ship. "How does he do that?" said Techo.

Draco and Contrinus left the landing strip and started wandering around the pit stop while wearing the hologram. Fortunately, the Galvans were currently in a neutral state regarding the Hamstervielian Empire. But that didn't stop them from shutting their doors and windows as they walked by.

Eventually Draco stopped and said, "I can't stand this any longer." "I know, it's not my first pick of disguises, but we need to bide our time until the North Star's fixed," said Contrinus. "That's not what I mean," said Draco as he shut off the hologram, "I mean we're hiding from Mantichrome instead of fighting him. We can't just let him get away with what he did to Chip." "I know you were close to him, but Mantichrome's too much for us to handle," said Contrinus.

Draco sighed and said, "We were closer than you think." Contrinus gave him a confused look so Draco explained, "It's not a well-known fact, but Jumba created both of us at the same time. So we're a lot closer than most other experiments. I know we're all 'cousins', but me and Chip are closer than that. He was my brother, my twin brother."

Contrinus gasped and said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't realize he meant that much to you." "Well, there is one person who meant more to me than Chip," said Draco. "Who's that?" asked Contrinus. Draco looked her in the face and said, "It's you." Contrinus flushed slightly, unsure of what to say.

Draco took Contrinus' hands in his and said, "Contrinus, from the first moment I saw you, I knew that we were to be very close to each other. The way we fly, our shapes, our personalities, they seem to have been made for each other." "Are-are you saying you love me?" asked Contrinus. "Yes, and if it weren't for Virustoxico looming over our lives, I'd take it to a higher level. I want to have you the rest of my life, but with Virustoxico plotting against my existence, I can't take that chance." "I feel the same way," said Contrinus, "and I don't care if you have a hundred enemies who want to kill you, which you might technically do. But I'm not going to leave your side. Nothing's going to tear us apart."

"What a touching moment," said a snide voice. Draco and Contrinus spun to see Mantichrome emerging from an alley, his eyes glowing with wicked delight. "But unfortunately for you two lovebirds, I'm going to be the one who will tear you apart, into as many pieces as painfully possible."

* * *

There's another chapter. I think is a rather touching one and well-defines Draco's relationships with Chip and Contrinus. However, Mantichrome is going to see to it that they won't get far. Will he succeed or can our heroes pull out of this? Find out next time.

I'm rather disappointed in the lack of reviews for the last chapter. I had thought that Chip would have a larger fanbase by now. Even if he often plays on the sides, I think he deserves some respect too. Please review for this chapter and the last chapter to show some support.


	5. Aftershock

**Retrieval Saga**

**Galvanized Wills**

**Chapter 5: Aftershock**

The two experiments tensed under the revenge droid's malicious glare. Draco extended his aliens appendages as he growled. "Don't bother trying to fly away," said Mantichrome as he sent viral energy into the ground. A few seconds later, cables from the sides of buildings and underground sprang out from their confinements and wove themselves together into a tight-fitting mesh cage of metal. "By the way, the NegaMorph disguise did work at first," said Mantichrome, "but I eventually became suspicious as to why NegaMorph would be here without anyone else when there are no Viral Clones on this planet. After that, it was a simple matter of using my heat detectors to identify you."

"Then why didn't you attack us?" asked Contrinus. "Because I wasn't ready yet," said Mantichrome, "I know you two are going to be a lot more bothersome to kill than that cyborg, even if it will be fun to do so. However, I'd rather not spend more times trying to kill you than necessary, even if it does build up my revenge drive."

"Revenge drive, schmevenge drive," growled Draco, "I'm still going to rip you in half." Mantichrome laughed and said, "If you had the guts for that kind of thing, you'd have done it from the start. I, on the other hand, have no qualms or scruples to hold me back whatsoever. And I wouldn't be denouncing my revenge drive so rapidly if I were you. It's a rather unique part of my configuration. It could be considered an electronic version of a thirst for revenge. It constantly compels me and strengthens with each failure or offense taken. The main difference is that mine can be used as a battery to empower me enough to deal with the source of my hatred, namely you."

"Didn't seem to empower you that much when you digitized Earth," said Draco. "That was when I was just using it to power my attacks," said Mantichrome, "I can channel that hatred for something even more powerful. I just needed to pick up a little something to give me a boost." Mantichrome pulled out a small device that resembled a thumbtack, except it was much more technological-looking, its point resembled a plug, and it gave off a humming sound. "A Galvanic Cyber Booster," explained Mantichrome, "made from the same nanotech as the Mechomorphs and has the similar ability of upgrading machinery to a more advanced stage. Allow me to demonstrate." Mantichrome's levitation disc slid open to reveal the machinery inside. He plugged the Cyber Booster into the central mechanism inside and closed up.

Mantichrome's body crackled with marigold electricity as it went through a metamorphosis. First, the canister-like endings of his limbs shrank into ball shapes while the fingers lengthened into longer and sharper claws. Then the back of his torso extended upward to form a vertebrate-like ridge, with a small cannon on the front end of that. His tail grew much longer and the inner edges of the sting at the end became jagged. The middle of his tail thickened slightly and then four spider-like limbs with rocket boosters for feet sprouted from it. Then his head grew longer and more teeth appeared in his mouth. The spines surrounding his head rearranged themselves near the top, with two overlapping each other and became more detailed. Then a second pair of eyes appeared under his original one and the Eye of XANA appeared on his forehead. Mantichrome was now more organic-looking, scarier, and more draconic-looking than before and was now 9 feet tall. "I am now Mantichrome 8.9!" he said, his voice deeper and more menacing than before.

Draco growled and leapt at Mantichrome. Mantichrome effortlessly backhanded him into the mesh barrier. "I'm a lot more powerful now," said Mantichrome, "which will make it easier to rip you to shreds." Draco ignored what Mantichrome said and leapt at him again. Mantichrome sidestepped him and raked Draco's side with his sharp claws. Draco cried out in pain as the metal tore through his skin. Mantichrome then used two other arms to slam Draco into the ground. Every time Draco tried to get up, Mantichrome would punch him to force him back down. "The game is over," said Mantichrome as he placed his sting over Draco's throat, "you lose."

Then a blast of firelight hit Mantichrome's back. Mantichrome and saw Contrinus fire another ball of firelight at him. "Please," said Mantichrome, "all that's doing is making my armor shine." "Then how about a little tarnish?" said Draco as he lifted his head and breathed fire on Mantichrome. Mantichrome was hardly hurt, but the smoke emitted blocked his vision for a while. This gave Draco enough time to limp towards Contrinus. Suddenly Mantichrome grabbed him by the tail and said, "Uh-uh-uh, can't have you revitalizing before I'm finished." He swung Draco away and he hit the other side of the net with a thud.

Mantichrome turned to Contrinus and said, "I suppose I'll have to kill you first. Your healing powers could get very annoying very quickly. Plus, it'll be fun killing his little girlfriend before his eyes." "My healing powers work just as well on myself," said Contrinus. "I know that, I'm from the future, remember?" said Mantichrome, "And records indicate that your power has considerable difficulty in self-recovery from frostbite. And fortunately, I have all of my father's monsters data programmed into me, including a Blok's ice attack." He lowered his neck to reveal the cannon on his spine. The cannon started glowing an icy blue as it started to charge up.

Contrinus was unsure of what to do. Mantichrome was right about the frostbite and she knew Mantichrome could quickly change direction to wherever she tried to flee to. But then Draco got up and ran over behind Contrinus. He brandished his four wings and held them in front of Contrinus like a shield. "Draco, don't!" called Contrinus but it was too late. Mantichrome fired the ice beam and it hit Draco's wings. Draco cried out in pain as the wings were frozen solid. The coldness from the attack spread to the other parts of Draco's body, which was particularly painful on his cold-blooded system.

"How touching," said Mantichrome, "Two lovebirds in a cage, the male shielding the female from the winter cold. I could freeze you both now, but I think I'll find it more satisfying if I kill you with my own bare hands." As Mantichrome walked over to them, Draco muttered to Contrinus, "You can still escape, I bet there's somewhere between those wires you could squeeze through. Save yourself, now." "I'm not going to leave you," said Contrinus as she wrapped her wings around Draco. The two of them closed their eyes and waited for Mantichrome to deliver the killing blow.

Suddenly there was a crackle of electricity, the clang of metal hitting metal, and a cry of astonishment and rage from Mantichrome. Draco and Contrinus opened their eyes to see what happened. Mantichrome was currently grappling with a new opponent who was holding Mantichrome's six hands in his own. It looked a lot like Chip, except he was all black with indigo circuitry lines all over his body. "Chip?" asked Draco and Contrinus. Chip rotated his head to face them and said, "The one and only." "How can you be here?" said Draco. "Well, I couldn't let Mantichrome kill my future sister-in-law, now could I?" Draco blushed slightly and said to Contrinus, "I think you should work on healing me real quickly."

Mantichrome soon recovered from his shock and snarled, "I don't know how you survived, but this time, I will make doubly sure that you are dead when I leave." "Not gonna happen," said Chip, "I'm stronger, better, faster, and stronger. Not to mention, this has become rather personal." "It definitely has," said Mantichrome as he picked Chip up. This turned out to be a mistake because now Chip could spin his legs in a helicopter fashion, kicking Mantichrome repeatedly in the neck and chest. Mantichrome let go of Chip, who landed back on the ground.

Then Chip extended his hands and the fingers on them lengthened into long pitchfork-sized claws. "Since when could you do that?" asked Contrinus, who had nearly finished healing Draco. "Since now," said Chip and he slashed Mantichrome's levitation disc, which disabled his ability to hover and caused him significant pain.

By now, Draco was now fully healed and ready to battle. "Let's send this psychopath to the scrap heap," said Draco. "I couldn't agree more," said Chip. The two experiment hit Mantichrome with everything they've got, both physical and energy attacks. Mantichrome was fairly battered and his surface quickly grew dented and marred. But he wasn't beaten yet and still proved a threat. "Let's give him the Rainbow Wave," said Draco. "I'm ready when you are," said Chip, converting his hands into energy cannons. Draco spat out all his breath attacks and shot lasers from his eyes. Chip fired multiple blasts of viral energy from his energy cannons. Draco then used his telekinesis to merge all the attacks into a large rainbow-colored energy blast that flew straight at Mantichrome.

Mantichrome was engulfed by the attack and was completely hidden by the multicolored burst of light. When the light faded, Mantichrome's body was nearly completely wrecked. With a groan of mechanical joints, he collapsed down onto the ground. "I will have my revenge," groaned the revenge droid and his eyes went dim. Then what looked like electrical smoke came out of his body and quickly floated away. After it left, the wire cage around them dispersed and went back into the ground and buildings.

"What was that?" asked Contrinus. "Mantichrome's mind in specter form," said Chip, "No doubt something he inherited from his father." "So, are you going to make us wait or are you going to tell us how you got here?" asked Draco. "Ok, but this is going to take a while so you guys might want to sit down." Draco and Contrinus seated themselves comfortably on Mantichrome's vacant body while Chip recounted his adventure:

"Well, when Mantichrome threw me onto Galvan B, I thought my goose was cooked. I tried every computer virus I could think of, but the moon didn't respond. In despiration, I tried this wire-tapping virus and it detected something. I sent an SOS virus to it and that caught its attention. And before I knew it, I was before the core of consciousness in Galvan B."

"Wait a minute," interupted Draco, "You're telling me you met the moon's brain?" "Actually, it's more like a central processing unit," said Chip, "In any case, it turns out that Galvan B is nearly completely ignorant of the outside universe. That was one reason it pulled in everything that landed on it, to learn more. I told it about how I got there and it was very fascinated by what I told it."

"So how did you get back here?" asked Contrinus. "I'm getting to that," said Chip, "So I made a deal with Galvan B; if it sent me back to Galva Prime, I would arrange it so that it would see everything the Galvanic Mechamorphs saw. Fortunately it assimilated a fair number of transmitters so it was a simple matter of converting myself to data so it could beam me back."

"So what's with the paint job?" asked Draco. Chip looked at himself and said, "Oh, right, I haven't introduced you guys yet." The black and indigo covering slid off of Chip and gathered together into a small blob at his feet. It had two stubby legs and a thick tail which made it look somewhat like a seal. Of course, normal seals don't have indigo circuit lines on their bodies with a similiar ring for an eye. "Galvan B created this for me using data it had collected on the Mechomorphs. He isn't very sophisticated, but he has all their powers. I call him V-Quip." "Veeee-Quip," chirped the small Mechomorph. After that, they started back to the North Star.

Everyone was delighted to have Draco and Contrinus return safely and they all were happy to have Chip back. V-Quip was the center of much interest, particularly to Techo. Chupy was also curious about V-Quip and sniffed him over. He tried to latch on, but soon found V-Quip to be inedible. A small plasma blast from V-Quip discouraged any further attempts of consumption.

With Mantichrome's defeat, the viruses in the North Star died and the ship became much easier to repair. In no time, the North Star was once again heading out of Galva Prime's atmosphere. Chip was currently reading a book in his and Draco's room. Draco and Contrinus were twining their necks in the same room and no one dared to make fun of it under pain of viral tasering from Chip. Then Morph walked in and said, "Boy, did I need that nap." He noticed Draco and Contrinus and said to Chip, "Can you make them stop that?" "Probably," said Chip without looking away from his book. "Will you make them stop?" asked Morph. "Absolutely not," said Chip as he flipped the page. Morph scratched his head and said, "I wonder what all I missed during my nap." He walked out of the room and was soon heard saying, "Oh boy! A metal putty seal, can we keep him? Ow! He zapped me!"

* * *

There's the final chapter. I hope you guys didn't mind me keeping Chip's status indeterminable for the last two chapters. I just wanted to see how many people cared about Chip. Not that much apparently. Perhaps I'd get a bigger reaction if I put Draco's life in jeopardy. *Draco gives me scathing look* Kidding, just kidding. Mantichrome's 8.9 mode is based on the picture that demongirl99 did of him for me on deviantART. The only differences is that Mantichrome 8.9's tail is longer and has those spider legs with rocket boosters for feet in the middle. V-Quip's pretty much like Ship from Alien Force except his circuit lines are indigo-colored. I'll put a picture up of Chip + V-Quip on deviantART soon. The next story will also have the return of a relatively new enemy so you won't want to miss it. Please review for this chapter.


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